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Chapter 2.
Dikṣā: Consecration
The choice once for all of vairagya and entrance into the śramanisaṁgha
The sage, having taken upon himself the five great vows of ahimsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha must follow the dharma taught by the Jina.1
A - Vairagya: Indifference towards worldly life
This is a word very often used by the sadhvis in their conversations, homilies, biographies and other writings.2 It expresses the foundation-stone, with its implications and consequences, upon which their life is built. Vairagya has both a highly negative and a highly positive aspect. When viewed negatively, vairagya means complete indifference towards all the pleasures of life, towards honours, money, ease, family ties, bonds of friendship. Other synonymous words, such as virakti, nirveda, are also frequently employed to indicate this characteristic of being asakta, non-attached. When viewed positively, this stripping off of all possessions, all attachments, all that comprises worldly life that life which, according to the doctrine, is engulfed in matter - leads to the one thing needful, namely, knowledge of and realisation of the ätman. Vairagya, in its essence, is the end-product of an impulse which gives rise to an unshakeable conviction that this radical Tife-option in the steps of the arhats is the best of all possible lives. It imparts indomitable courage, first to affirm this choice before family and society in the face of
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1 ahimsă saccam ca ateṇayaṁ ca tatto ya baṁbhaṁ apariggahaṁ ca paḍivajjiyā pamca mahavvayāim carejja dhammam jiņadesiyam vidū. US XXI, 12.
Jain Education International
Cf. e.g. the observations of Mahāsati Saralā, 1970, Part II, pp. 83-85.
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